With a UNIBusiness education as a base, Becca Flynn Kettman (Marketing ’14) has been serving a larger purpose in her career track — working to improve and preserve our planet. 

Kettman is a fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water in Cincinnati, Ohio — essentially a satellite office of the Office of Water, which is based in Washington D.C. 

Kettman and her team conduct research on drinking water contaminants, helping inform regulatory development for the EPA. She’s learned about the importance of data in good governing practices and the deliberative process the government uses to develop rules. 

Kettman had always been fascinated by the environment. She came to UNIBusiness searching for a practical degree, one that would help her in all phases of life. She’s thankful she chose business, majoring in marketing and minoring in economics, because it assisted in her ability to organize and decipher data. Kettman also worked with the school’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center. 

A few years after her graduation from UNIBusiness, Kettman traveled to California and saw firsthand some of the environmental challenges our planet is facing. She saw birds trapped in nets, trash lying on the beach — Kettman wanted to help. 

“I thought there was something I can do help and maybe something I could learn about what was going on,” Kettman said. “I wanted to know more.” 

She attended graduate school and joined the EPA’s fellowship program in September 2018. Kettman has enjoyed learning about the interworking of a government agency. Her business degree has especially come in handy when having to deal with slow process of bureaucracy — prioritizing ideas and potential regulations is of the utmost important — and she’s learned plenty from some of the country’s foremost environmental experts. 

“There’s a whole group of people in the EPA that I get to listen to just by sitting in the office every day, and it’s very interesting,” Kettman said. “We’re here with our purpose, and that’s clean drinking water.”